Starring : Wee Man, Habro & Habro Snr, Robj & a whole cooked chicken
Wednesday 24th June 1998
Our TGV leaves at 00.35 a.m and we are in coach 8, which on arrival
on the platform does not appear to exist. We don't fret, we are all
exhausted and down with the result. Another TGV pulls in and is joined
to the one already there. It contains, thankfully, coach 8.
Robj ejects the four Moroccans in our booked seats....
We then endure a 3.5 hrs high speed train journey to Paris gare du
Lyon. Somewhat uneventful and uncomfortable, but almost in total
silence as we all doze off. Only noise is a mobile phone user.
On arrival at gare du Lyon the Wee Man gets a few cans of much needed
coke to quench our thirst and address our dehydration.
There is a huge line for taxis but we sweat it out, only to bizarrely
discover once we are at the top of the queue, that most taxis are only
licensed to take three people (plus or minus a whole cooked chicken).
We plan just to get in the next arriving cab, before the driver can
protest, a Merc pulls up, and this does the trick - except he doesn't
know where Avenue de la Republique is !!
The Habros do the navigation to Chateau de Vincennes and on from there
to Fontenay-sous-bois - 10 quid well spent.
We arrive Chez Spund at 4 a.m - weary and glad to have a place to
crash. And crash is what we do - the former Link team members, minus
Audrey Buchan, and thankfully minus the whole cooked chicken too (now
in the Spunds fridge in the basement), we crash together (oo er
missus) in the ground floor living room. There is no time to discuss
common task logs, Informix downtimes or the problems with Syd Foxleys
locked material lists. We are all completely Grossarted and within
seconds the Link team are sleeping.
Habros Mum awakes the boys (!!) at 9.am to a breakfast of bread,
cheese & much needed coffee. We all make use of the bathroom
facilities as the blood, sweat and tears (beerstains) need to be
removed from the night before.
We say our thank yous and write a note for Aunt Susan. We say hi
to habros cousins and head off in the morning sun for the trip home.
We head to gare du Nord where habro is catching Eurostar. The Wee Man
makes a terrific suggestion to cancel the Parisian shopping trip and
to get on the same Eurostar train - and so in hasty time, we do.
Spirits are lifting as we analyse at length (no surprises here) the
events of the past few heady days.
The sports Quiz is resurrected and the Wee Man asserts his cricketing
dominance and wins by a few lengths.
At Waterloo, we take the tube to Leicester Square and Habro heads for
the train at Kings Cross.
Wee Man and Robj take the tube to Heathrow hoping to get on an
earlier shuttle on standby - they are lucky, the 4.40p.m has seats
on the very last row. Robj still has crucial time to pick up card &
gift for Gayle, due to our 4th wedding anniversary today !!
And then its Edinburgh in glorious sunshine.The trip is now over.
We are met by Gayle, Margo & Greg. The Wee Man is reunited with
his family and Robj with his darling. Thought I'd end this all
on a romantic note.
See y'all in 2002 in Japan ????
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